


A fresh start

by Shipper_on_deck



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, but Davey’s there for him, i don’t know how to tag, jack’s kind of an asshole tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 19:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18923209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shipper_on_deck/pseuds/Shipper_on_deck
Summary: “Davey.”“I know I was an asshole. To you more than anyone else.”





	A fresh start

_Davey_

_“I know I was an asshole, to you more than anyone”_

 

“God, will you stop talking, nobody cares about your nerd shit!” Jack groaned, rolling his eyes. They’d met through Crutchie initially, though Jack barely if ever spoke to him now. Most of his old friends had left when he started falling in with worse crowds, out drinking almost every night, or fighting with people he didn’t even know. They’d jumped ship, but not Davey. This infuriating, annoying, geeky kid wouldn’t leave him the fuck alone, no matter how much Jack protested. “Will you just fuck off.”

 

“No.” Davey shrugged. “I know you don’t care, but I’m excited about it!” And with that, he went on talking, and though Jack rolled his eyes... he listened.

 

_“I was hurt, and angry, and I did everything to push you away.”_

 

“Will you just fuck off!” Jack’s words were angry, Venomous, like he was poised to kill. Davey hadn’t even done anything, just asked him how his weekend had been. “as if he didn’t already know it was awful it was.” Some dark, self destructive voice in the back of Jack’s mind taunted. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and his eyes were dark, angry, his voice a growl. “Take the fucking hint! I don’t want to know you, so fuck off.” Davey’s voice was the same as it always was, calm and levelled as he just shook his head. “You and I both know the answer to that.” He said bluntly, walking a little quicker to fall into step beside Jack again, since the other teen had already moved a little further ahead, trying to put distance between himself and Davey.

“Well why not?” Jack growled. “Why can’t you see I don’t want you around!”

“Because.” Davey responded simply. “You _need_ someone  like me.”

 

_You knew me through the darkest time of my life, but you still saw something good in me._

It was maybe three, four am when Jack woke up In the holding cell at the local police station. It wasn’t for anything too awful- he’d been in for shoplifting and pickpocketing a few times before, but now it was just for underage drinking- but that didn’t stop him being surprised when the cell door opened, and instead of the man who ran the adoption home he’d last been dumped at, as it always had been before, Davey was standing there, waiting.

“Come on, I posted your bail so get up... I’m taking you home with me.” Davey sighed, dragging a hand through his hair and helping a still quite drunk Jack to his unsteady feet. Once they were both in the car though, he didn’t start it, instead, he let his head fall forward to the top of the steering wheel. “I can’t keep doing this Jack!” He finally said softly, his voice shaking. “You act like you hate the world, like you want to either kill the world or kill yourself trying on a bad day, but then you give me these sparks of the person I know you _can_ be . The one that you are- don’t you dare interrupt me right now.” 

There was something in Davey’s eyes, a kind of almost resigned tiredness that Jack had never seen before, that made him quickly snap his mouth shut with a click as his teeth knocked together.

“It’s like... like my birthday.” Davey continued. “You acted like you forgot, like nothing was different between us, then showed up outside my bedroom window at  midnight , with a box of my favourite sweets, and a card, just so you could be the first to say happy birthday to me. And then you were back to normal all day at school.” There were tears replacing the tiredness now, and it made Jack’s stomach roll. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m sick of the mixed signals... you want to burn the world down, fine. But leave me out of it.”

Jack had been waiting for this. It was why he never let himself get attached to anyone, everyone left, after all. So he’d been fully ready to come back with a biting remark, until he really thought. No more Davey meant no more three AM conversations about nothing, nobody to come to when the voice shouting abuse at himself in his mind got too loud. Nobody who actually understood him

He didn’t realise what was happening until he noticed the wet patches forming on his hands, the way his shoulders were shaking and his breath was ragged.

Jack Kelly, the emotionless bastard as his last foster mother had dubbed him, was  crying in front of Davey, the biting remark on his tongue changing to the one, most genuine word he’d ever spoken. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know you are...” Davey said quietly. “But I can’t do sorry anymore Jack... you need to change.” He managed a weak smile at him

Jack had never been so adamant to do something in his life.

 

_So I hope you know I’m not being sweet when I say I’m lucky to have you. it’s just the honest truth._

 

There’d been a lot of relapses here and there- old habits die hard after all- But Davey had always been there to pick him up and help him back to his feet, and eventually Jack had really truly turned himself around, patching up the bridges he’d burned with his old friends, and graduating with the rest of his class, even securing a scholarship position at a local art college, all of it with Davey by his side. Maybe that was why it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when after a year of living together Jack and Davey had officially gotten together, not when it was so clear to everyone the two belonged together, especially now that Jack had finally gotten himself back on track.

 

_His hands were shaking as he spoke now, looking up from his cue cards- and the teardrops that had fallen onto them- and instead looking into his soon to be husband’s eyes as he spoke. “Davey, if I’m a better man now than I was when we met, it’s because of you... because you dragged me, kicking and screaming, to recovery and I can’t ever thank you enough for it.” He reaches out, taking one of Davey’s hands in his. “You made me- you /make/ me want to be better. Want to be someone who deserves your love, and I promise I won’t ever stop trying to be that man. I love you, so, so much.”_

_ The moment the priest pronounced them husband and husband, and Jack was kissing Davey, his new  husband , was the best moment of his life. It felt bright, and safe, and promising. _

_It felt like a fresh start._


End file.
